The invention is directed to a method and apparatus for the efficient display of status information on a screen such as a compact pixel screen found on a palm top computer, a personal digital assistant, and a cellular communication device such as a cellular telephone or pager.
One way to display status information, such as battery status, is to utilize a custom display with one or more icons built into the screen. The icons are activated and displayed when required. For example, a web ready cellular phone might display an email icon when an email arrives. Such icons can be very small since they can be continuous line drawings rather than pixel based bit maps. However, custom screens are generally more expensive to make than standard screens. Also, icons that are built into a custom screen detract from viewable space.
Another approach for displaying information is to utilize individual light emitting diodes (xe2x80x9cLEDsxe2x80x9d) or their equivalent. For example, an activated or flashing red LED might indicate low battery status on a cellular telephone or laptop computer and a flashing yellow LED might indicate a busy hard drive on a laptop computer. Many laptops use a multicolored LED to indicate battery status. LEDs offer a crude solution to displaying information and require the user to know, for example, what information a flashing LED is supposed to convey. Alternatively, some sort of label or symbol is required such as a battery symbol located immediately adjacent to a particular LED to indicate to the user what type of information the LED is supposed to convey.
In one aspect of the invention, a method is provided for providing an indication of the status of operating conditions of a mobile terminal. A first and second operating parameter of the mobile terminal is monitored and priority levels assigned to the different conditions of the first and second operating parameters. Selected status icons, associated with the conditions of the first and second operating parameters, are displayed for a variable selected time period in an assigned area on the mobile terminal. The variable selected time period is based on the assigned priority level for each selected status icon.
In one form of the invention, the variable selected time period for each of the selected status icons corresponds to M+(PV/S), wherein M is a minimum display time period for each status icon, P is the priority associated with the selected status icon about to be displayed in the display area, S is a sum of all the priority levels associated with all of the selected status icons, and V=Txe2x88x92MN, where T is the total period of time allocated to sequentially display the selected status icons, and N is the number of selected status icons.
In another form of the invention, the first operating parameter is battery power and the second operating parameter is signal strength.
In one aspect of the invention, the mobile terminal usable comprises: a housing; at least one screen (such as a pixel screen) attached to the housing, wherein a defined area in the at least one screen is dedicated to sequentially displaying a plurality of selected status icons; a first detector monitoring a first operating parameter of the mobile terminal for determining a priority level of the first operating parameter; a second detector monitoring a second operating parameter of the mobile terminal for determining a priority level of the second operating parameter; a memory storing a first set of status icons associated with the priority levels of the first operating parameter and a second set of status icons associated with the priority levels of the second operating parameter; and a processor operably coupled to the at least one screen, the memory, and the first and second detectors, the processor selecting the status icon from the first set associated with the priority level of the first operating parameter determined by the first detector and selecting the status icon from the second set associated with the priority level of the second, and controlling sequential display of the selected status icon from the first set and the selected status icon from the second set for time periods dependent on the priority levels of each of the first and second operating parameters determined by the first and second detectors.
In one form of the invention, the mobile terminal""s first detector monitors battery power and the second detector monitors signal strength.